EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 275 
skunk find a place where the ground was thawed 
on the surface. Except for science do not travel 
in such a climate as this, in November and 
March. I tried if a fish would take the bait to¬ 
day, but in vain, I did not get a nibble. Where 
are they ? 
March 80, 1856. P. M. To Walden and 
Fair Haven. Still cold and blustering. I came 
out to see the sand and subsoil in the deep cut 
as I would to see a spring flower, some redness 
on the cheek of earth.X go to Fair 
Haven via the Andromeda Swamp. The river 
is a foot and more in depth there still. There 
is a little bare ground in and next to the 
swampy woods at the head of Well Meadow, 
where the springs and little black rills are flow¬ 
ing. X see already one blade, three or four 
inches long, of that purple or lake grass, lying 
flat on some water between snow-clad banks, 
the first leaf with a rich bloom on it. How si¬ 
lent are the footsteps of spring! There, too, 
where there is a fraction of the meadow, two 
rods over, quite bare under the bank, in this 
warm recess at the head of the meadow, though 
the rest is covered with snow a foot or more in 
depth, I was surprised to see the skunk-cabbage, 
with its great spear-heads, open and ready to 
blossom, and the Caltha palustris bud, which 
shows yellowish, and the golden saxifrage green 
